4.1.13

BREAKING OFF

The
first tournament of 2013 is the Arcaden Munich Open, also known as Betfair
European Tour event 6.

This
is the end of the Players Tour Championship series. The top 25 at the end of
the tournament will join the top seven from the Asian order of merit to contest
the Grand Finals, which will be back in Galway in March.

There
has already been pre-qualifying so a field of 32 will gather in
Furstenfeldbruck including seven members of the game’s top 16 – Mark Selby,
Neil Robertson, Stephen Maguire, Graeme Dott, Matthew Stevens, Ricky Walden and
Mark Davis.

Maguire
won this event last season. He began the current campaign by winning the first
UK PTC and finishing runner-up in the second so was able to pick and choose which
further events he played in to a greater extent than some other players.

Maguire
faces Anthony Hamilton, sheriff of that well known snooker stronghold
Pottingham, and a player it’s good to see back on our screens.

Anthony
is one of the heaviest scorers the game has ever seen but never quite got his hands
on a ranking title. His career hasn’t been helped of late by injury so it’s encouraging
that he’s qualified. He’s also 34th in the order of merit so has a
chance to make the finals.

It’s
nice to see some younger faces too. Michael Wasley will meet Mark King while
Kyren Wilson, an amateur, tackles Selby.

In
addition there are three Chinese players in the field, plus an Indian and a
Thai.

Who
wins may depend on who has been practising over the festive period. The five
previous European Tour titles have been won by Selby, Robertson, Mark Allen,
Judd Trump and Ding Junhui, so it would be a surprise if another big name didn’t
come away wit the trophy.

All
matches will be live on British Eurosport, with extensive coverage also on
Eurosport International. It all starts today at 12pm GMT.